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I heard a lot about Dubai Shopping Festival.
What is it? Is it really interesting? Can I buy cheap things there?

The dubai shopping festival happens once a year and happens all over Dubai. For more information, you can check out their official website http://www.mydsf.com/

Is it me or are u barely hearing anything about the Dubai Shopping Festival this year?

Dubaidude007 wrote:Is it me or are u barely hearing anything about the Dubai Shopping Festival this year?

its just that there is a lot happening... this launch and that launch and Dubai film festival..

but certainly it is not like it used to be...

How are the prices at that festival are more cheap than the rest of the year?

I think its starting a bit late this year.... the lights on SZR are already up though

Cristin wrote:How are the prices at that festival are more cheap than the rest of the year?

Most of the big stores have sales, some bargains can be found.

DSF now is fake. back in 97-99 were the best.

sage & onion wrote:

Cristin wrote:How are the prices at that festival are more cheap than the rest of the year?

Most of the big stores have sales, some bargains can be found.

I agree but you need to rummage thru everything to find the real bargain. Store clerks tends to hide those bargains for them to give out to their friends or for themselves.

reviewer wrote:

sage & onion wrote:

Cristin wrote:How are the prices at that festival are more cheap than the rest of the year?

Most of the big stores have sales, some bargains can be found.

I agree but you need to rummage thru everything to find the real bargain. Store clerks tends to hide those bargains for them to give out to their friends or for themselves.

You really think so?, we have had some good luck during the DSF sales, I do agree you have to look though.

DSF is NOT like the winter sales in Europe!

The objective is to get you (the consumer) to THINK that there are bargains to be had (UP TO 70% off!) get you inside the store and then persuade you to part with more than you intended by giving you the opportunity to enter a prize draw...IF you spend more than 300Dhs!

Here is the equasion:
Most stores get an average number of spending customers in their stores each day throughout the year. Lets give it a number at random. 1000
Lets say, for the sake of argument, that the average per capita spend of these customers is 80 Dhs. That means the store is banking on making 80,000 Dhs per day.
However, if those spending consumers can be persuaded to enter the prize draw by spending a minimum of 300Dhs...then the store makes a staggering 300,000 per day!
The overheads do not increase
There is no additional investment in stock
Items can be priced at 299Dhs so that multiple purchases can be 'upsold'
Old, deleted or value depreciated stock can be shifted under the pretence of a discounted unit value and appear back on the books at a higher % net value than orginally entered, thereby artificially boosting the EOY figures and appeasing the shareholders/owners and providing the operational management and financial departments with undeserved pats on the back.
All the store has to do is pay a licence fee to the DSF to be able to run a promotion such as this.
The prize value is comparatively small compared to the profit gained.

Work this out also:
You may enter the daily DSF Win a 4x4 Prize draw. The cost is a minimum spend of 30Dhs in any petrol station etc. (Excluding fuel sales as they lose money on that due to the government capping of the price) Try to imagine the number of tickets handed out each day where the average spend in a petrol station store has been driven up from 8Dhs to 30 Dhs. This means that the petrol stations are making 3 times their normal profit. Equate that over the number of petrol stations in Dubai.
The 4x4's on offer are bought as a bulk sale at somewhere like 75% of their dealer price tag.
They could offer 20 4x4's each day...and still be making a profit!

On a wider scale: The DSF is a money making machine...for the DSF!



Knight

sage & onion wrote:

reviewer wrote:

sage & onion wrote:

Cristin wrote:How are the prices at that festival are more cheap than the rest of the year?

Most of the big stores have sales, some bargains can be found.

I agree but you need to rummage thru everything to find the real bargain. Store clerks tends to hide those bargains for them to give out to their friends or for themselves.

You really think so?, we have had some good luck during the DSF sales, I do agree you have to look though.

Yeah, last year I got loads of discounted items that I never think of buying with their original prices.....Keep on rummaging and make sure to go on the first day.

Dubai Knight wrote:DSF is NOT like the winter sales in Europe!

The objective is to get you (the consumer) to THINK that there are bargains to be had (UP TO 70% off!) get you inside the store and then persuade you to part with more than you intended by giving you the opportunity to enter a prize draw...IF you spend more than 300Dhs!

Here is the equasion:
Most stores get an average number of spending customers in their stores each day throughout the year. Lets give it a number at random. 1000
Lets say, for the sake of argument, that the average per capita spend of these customers is 80 Dhs. That means the store is banking on making 80,000 Dhs per day.
However, if those spending consumers can be persuaded to enter the prize draw by spending a minimum of 300Dhs...then the store makes a staggering 300,000 per day!
The overheads do not increase
There is no additional investment in stock
Items can be priced at 299Dhs so that multiple purchases can be 'upsold'
Old, deleted or value depreciated stock can be shifted under the pretence of a discounted unit value and appear back on the books at a higher % net value than orginally entered, thereby artificially boosting the EOY figures and appeasing the shareholders/owners and providing the operational management and financial departments with undeserved pats on the back.
All the store has to do is pay a licence fee to the DSF to be able to run a promotion such as this.
The prize value is comparatively small compared to the profit gained.

Work this out also:
You may enter the daily DSF Win a 4x4 Prize draw. The cost is a minimum spend of 30Dhs in any petrol station etc. (Excluding fuel sales as they lose money on that due to the government capping of the price) Try to imagine the number of tickets handed out each day where the average spend in a petrol station store has been driven up from 8Dhs to 30 Dhs. This means that the petrol stations are making 3 times their normal profit. Equate that over the number of petrol stations in Dubai.
The 4x4's on offer are bought as a bulk sale at somewhere like 75% of their dealer price tag.
They could offer 20 4x4's each day...and still be making a profit!

On a wider scale: The DSF is a money making machine...for the DSF!



Knight

DK why are you shocked ? did you expect DSF to be a charity event for the tourists and residents of Dubai ?

Not shocked at all. Having dealt with them for the last 5 years, I know that any government initative in Dubai has one ulterior motive: make money for the government of Dubai!



Knight

in the UK, stores are not allowed to put "sale items" in a sale unless that product has been sold in the store at a higher price within the last 28 days.

This help stop the fake sales.

Yep and the really big players even manage to get around that one by advertising one product in one store in some remote part of the country.

But if this rule applied in Dubai it would work, but it never will because like DK says DSF is all about DSF and the stores, its mainly old or second quality goods that are specifically brought in just for the sales, and the original price is just made up and then heavilly discounted to make us think we are getting a bargin

Don't start me off on the quality of the other stuff on offer during DSF.

Just go into one of the malls that is putting on the government supplied entertainment...total pants!



Knight

you mean like

"Tony and his Acrobatic Hampster"?

arniegang wrote:you mean like

"Tony and his Acrobatic Hampster"?

Oh if ONLY it were that good!

I was involved with the event at Mercato a few years ago and the 'Wonderful International Variety Show for Big Fun for All the Family' consisted of a hairy, bandy legged, 90 year old greaseball tango dancer with his emaciated 85 year old partner shuffling around a sheet of 8x4 plywood, a sword swallower with a sore throat, an escapologist who got stuck in his box and the funniest act in the world from India...a bloke with his face painted white and a stuffed chicken on his head impersonating a duck with constipation!

Laughed? I nearly bought a round!



Knight

Its true and will continue to be like this until the time consumers raised their voice against this daylight robbery.

Clothes stores wise, it's a big hoax, you see "big sale" in massive signs in the stores and on the windows, with a tinnyyyy "partial" somewhere around it, you get in and you see the whole store is a mess, the 'sales persons' are nowhere to be seen, clothes all over the place, in the wrong places and what pisses me off is that they somehow always have the "new collection" in a neat and tidy corner of the store, but with no sale whatsoever. So basically it's as if they are saying "We just want you to buy the old stocks which we otherwise would've thrown in the bin anyway"

So, for any people looking forward for good deals: Try to go as soon as the so-called 'sales' are announced, you might be lucky enough to find something cheap and half-decent...

liverpool4ever wrote:So, for any people looking forward for good deals: Try to go as soon as the so-called 'sales' are announced, you might be lucky enough to find something cheap and half-decent...

YEAH Go early to see at least the good stuff.. one might be lucky to get a real good bargain...